How to use it
Pick a period you can account for, a week or a month. Income is what you invoiced for that period. Billed hours are the ones on the invoices. Unbilled hours are everything else you did for work. Costs are software, fees and anything else the business paid for.
Why the two numbers differ
A freelancer who bills 20 hours and spends another 15 on email, proposals and revisions has worked 35 hours for 20 hours of pay. Knowing the real figure is what lets you raise a rate, drop a client or cut the admin. Our roundup of the best Mac time trackers covers ways to capture the unbilled part.
Getting the hours right
The unbilled number is the one people guess low. A week of honest logging fixes that. If you work on a Mac, Dayflow keeps an automatic timeline of your screen so you can count those hours afterward instead of remembering to log them. Dayflow publishes this tool.
Frequently asked questions
What is a real hourly rate?
It is what you earn for each hour you actually work, counting the unbilled hours too: email, proposals, revisions, admin and calls. It is almost always lower than the rate on your invoice.
What counts as an unbilled hour?
Any work time you do not charge for. Common ones are finding clients, writing proposals, invoicing, bookkeeping, unpaid revisions and replying to messages.
How do I find out how many hours I really work?
Keep a simple log for one normal week, on paper or with any time tracker, and count everything work-related. One honest week is enough to make this calculation useful.
Is my data sent anywhere?
No. The calculation runs in your browser and nothing you type is stored or sent.